There's one particular set of VFX at the climax that've been a problem. Some things are easy to write (a made-up example: "a cloud, streaked, like neon become fog") but hard to turn into actual visuals. Just laying out the composition of these shots has been a challenge, let alone implementing them. This is further complicated (in a good way) by Jimm's desire that everything look like something you could have done in 1970 with the technology of the time.

Trumbull is generally credited with having pioneered the use of the cloud tank for Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, which was some years after the end of TOS. The technique was actually invented in 1947, but I can't think of anything in TOS that looks plausibly like it.

Of course, the technique was used in The Wrath Of Khan, but that's not TOS.

According to the book Star Trek: The Original Series 365 (p. 236), the ameoba was created was by Frank Van der Veer, and created was made by placing colored liquid (most likely mineral oil) between two closely spaced sheets of glass, and by moving the glass to make the liquid undulate.

FYI, startrekhistory.com has more than a few examples of what are allegedly cloud tank effects shots (or at least something very close to a cloud tank).

Click to expand...

Open the link and click the PREV arrow four times to see the example.

When I think "cloud tank" I think of the effect as per CE3K (Close Encounters 3rd Kind for you young ones) that is intended to create what actually looks like clouds, and which uses salt and fresh water to create a "floor" for the cloud effect, but using inks and dyes, etc., in a water tank probably still qualifies. That said, I'm struggling to think of another example on Star Trek aside from Murasaki 312.

EDIT: As Dennis mentioned, the first documented use of a cloud tank technique in a motion picture was in 1947 for "The Beginning or the End", a fictionalized account of the creation of the atom bomb. You can see the resulting mushroom cloud effects at 4:34 in the trailer here (link)(sorry there's an ad to sit through).

For The Beginning or the End (1947), director Arnold Gillespie…was asked to re-create the explosion of an atom bomb. Gillespie's first problem was discovering what such an event looked like, since the only existing footage of real atomic explosions was classified at the time. The crete the mushroom cloud eventually seen in the film, Gillespie remembered the way in which he had seen fake blood form billowing clouds in water when filming Tarzan movies years earlier. The effects man built a large glass tank, and after experimenting with various dyes, filmed an underwater mushroom cloud. When superimposed over the background footage, it created an impression of an explosion so convincing that the shot was used in air force training films for years afterwards.

FYI, startrekhistory.com has more than a few examples of what are allegedly cloud tank effects shots (or at least something very close to a cloud tank).

Click to expand...

Open the link and click the PREV arrow four times to see the example.

When I think "cloud tank" I think of the effect as per CE3K (Close Encounters 3rd Kind for you young ones) that is intended to create what actually looks like clouds, and which uses salt and fresh water to create a "floor" for the cloud effect, but using inks and dyes, etc., in a water tank probably still qualifies. That said, I'm struggling to think of another example on Star Trek aside from Murasaki 312.

EDIT: As Dennis mentioned, the first documented use of a cloud tank technique in a motion picture was in 1947 for "The Beginning or the End", a fictionalized account of the creation of the atom bomb. You can see the resulting mushroom cloud effects at 4:34 in the trailer here (link)(sorry there's an ad to sit through).

For The Beginning or the End (1947), director Arnold Gillespie…was asked to re-create the explosion of an atom bomb. Gillespie's first problem was discovering what such an event looked like, since the only existing footage of real atomic explosions was classified at the time. The crete the mushroom cloud eventually seen in the film, Gillespie remembered the way in which he had seen fake blood form billowing clouds in water when filming Tarzan movies years earlier. The effects man built a large glass tank, and after experimenting with various dyes, filmed an underwater mushroom cloud. When superimposed over the background footage, it created an impression of an explosion so convincing that the shot was used in air force training films for years afterwards.

[LEFT]...here's a "behind the scenes" shot from the B-camera, catching the A-camera being propelled down the corridor set. Since it as shot on an actual studio stage, TTI features a number of high-angle shots, as there was room to get the camera well above the tops of the sets.